Camera, HST, Wide Field-Planetary, F/12.9 Sensor Head/Relay Optics, #1

This is one of four original CCD Sensor Head and Relay Optics assemblies from the f/12.9 wide-field mode of the first Wide-Field Planetary Camera (WFPC-1) flown on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) on its 24 April 1990 launch. It consists of a small Cassegrain telescope feeding a single 800x800 pixel CCD, and associated electronics. The WFPC-1 was removed from the HST during the servicing mission launched on 2 December 1993 that installed the correcting optics that compensate for the flawed primary mirror. One complete electro-optical channel from the wide field mode assembly, of which this element was a part, was transferred to NASM by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in September 1999. It is now on display in the Explore the Universe gallery.